Day: November 20, 2013

"Slow and Go" [mp3 removed -- tune is now on Bandcamp]

Octatrack playing modular patch(es) with some overdubbing/multitracking in the sequencer.
In the patch an LFO is opening a filter frequency control in one synth on the upstroke and closing on the down, the inverse of the same wave is opening and closing a volume gate on another synth.
While this is going on continuously a 1V/OCT signal plays a tune.
Things I learned doing this:
How to use a "scene" in the Octatrack arranger to switch delay effect on and off in a single track.
Slicing an LFO-d wave into 64 slices and then muting every other slice to get an additional gating effect.
Tempo changes in the arranger to make these "gated" slices play faster and slower in sync with the percussion.
This is mostly analog but sounds computer-gamy due to MIDI-triggering and "simple waveforms."

"Rack Dance 3 (Atonal Variations)" [mp3 removed]

This is a bit noodly for my taste but some of the tunes are stuck in my head and I have to deal with that. It's not really all that atonal but I'm calling it a [demo] rather than a piece due to a heavier-than-usual machine agency.
After those disclaimers: I kept the settings for the four modular synth patches in "Rack Dance 3" and then played the MIDI-to-cv notes that triggered them, this time using the above module's "polyphony" and "monophonic 2" modes (the toggle switch at the bottom left).
"Polyphony" as they define it means four notes played simultaneously on a single MIDI channel are stacked as a chord until one ends, then it's assigned to the first available CV out. This adds a random element distributing notes to different patches than they were originally written to play. It's not completely random, though, there is a logic to it. Polyphony uses 1-2-3-4 distribution and M2 uses 1-2 / 3-4. In this four minute piece I'm switching from M1 to M2 to Poly while the sequencer is playing. This method results in a lot of outright unlistenable trash. Originally I had 14 minutes of playing and edited it down to four.